10 T.HoE A\U..DIU' BLO N BiU bi ara 
the last one. On Sunday the kids took one out to let me see how nude it 
was! One was definitely smaller than the others so a couple of days later 
Don put nail polish on its beak so we could keep track of it and see if it 
caught up to the others in size, but it never did. 
“By the following Sunday the others were so big Don was afraid they 
would push the little one out, so he fixed up a nest in a strawberry box and 
we kept it in that. He fed it chicken mash—-sometimes moistened with 
tomato juice to give it more flavor! He insisted on giving it water with an 
eye-dropper, and I insisted that he dig worms for it. We did that for two 
days, then put the strawberry box in a bushel basket on the back lawn, 
where very soon the mother found it and brought it plenty of worms. It 
was so cute. Don used to put it in their sun porch at night and the mother 
would be round with a mouthful of worms before he was up in the morning 
and hop up the steps and talk to the little one until Don put it out. 
“On the 12th day two of them flopped out of the nest and hopped around 
on the lawn, but couldn’t seem to fly, so the kids put them back in the nest 
in case a cat should get them. But they just flopped out again and by night 
were gone for good, and the next day the third one left. Also, that day the 
little one hopped from the basket to my foot and sat there for a long time. 
“For a week Ruth and Don carried the little one around perched on one 
finger and it would sit there so smugly and let us stroke its back. I put it 
to sleep several times stroking its head. Ruth used to exhibit it, perched on 
her finger, to all our visitors, and it would chirp so arrogantly. One day I 
was “minding” it and the mother tried so hard to coax it away. She had a 
mouthful of worms and would come Within two feet and then hop away, but 
the little one wouldn’t go beyond the edge of the veranda. 
“T laughed at Don and Ruth trying to teach it to fly. They would perch — 
it on one finger and swoop their arm around quickly to give it the idea, and 
the little thing would never move a muscle, and after this mad whirl there 
it sat quite unruffled. I suggested that one of them fly a bit to show it how! 
However when it was two weeks old it hopped away with its mother. The 
kids worried for a couple of days as we didn’t think it could fly very well 
and there are a lot of cats around. Then it came back and there was great 
rejoicing. Its chirp was different from any of the others, much sharper, 
and we all recognized it. For a couple of weeks it used to come around 
every day and come up to the back steps, but hopped away when anyone 
tried to get near it. I realize there isn’t anything unusual about the story, 
but we did have a lot of fun watching them, and it was interesting how 
the mother would hop around the lawn or hedge and watch Don carry her 
baby around on his finger. 
“This, I think, is unusual. A hummingbird came and sniffed at my legs. 
It was in the early summer and I had a bright red afghan on my legs, and 
the hummingbird hovered along the side of my leg for seconds. I stood it 
as long as I could and when I thought it was going to stab me with that 
long sharp bill I moved, and of course it flew away. It was so close I could 
almost have patted it!” 
